On the day reformist newspaper Etemad Melli (National Trust, belonging to a reformist party by the same name and run by defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi) was shut down, thousands of supporters of Iran’s green movement (lead by pro-reformists) took to the streets around the offices of the newspaper and gathered at Haft Tir square in Tehran and, despite the violent attacks by security agents and plain-clothes agents, called slogans against “the dictator”, asking him to leave.
Agents, who have been monitoring and sensoring newspapers in the publishing houses prior to their publication, prevented the publication of Etemad Melli newspaper operating under a license by Mehdi Karoubi. The closure followed the publication of Karoubi’s letter in Etemad Melli asserting that sexual abuses and rape have taken place in Iranian prisons along with their evidence. Earlier, supporters of the current administration and Basijees (who operate under the leadership of the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards, IRGC) had protested the work of this newspaper in its expose of the coup government’s violations and inhuman treatment and had during last week’s congregational Friday prayers distributed leaflets calling for demonstrations and protests against Etemad Melli. The leaflet called on “Hizbullah nation”, “Martyrs of the Leader”, “Martyrs’ Families”, and “Wakeful Basijees” together on Saturday in front of the newspaper near Haft Tir square at the Karim Khan bridge in Tehran. These leaflets were distributed by different groups on Friday along with Ya Sarollah and Ebratha (Lessons) weekly publications.
Ya Sarollah is a publication owned by the Basij and the IRGC, while Ebratha is managed by Komeil Kaveh, a well-known leader of Ansare Hizbullah group. One of those distributing these leaflets on Friday was Masood Dehnamaki, a known founder and leader of Ansare Hizbullah, an extremist Iranian group.
True to form, Ansare Hizbullah denied distributing these leaflets a few hours later but this did not prevent a group of Basijees from gathering in front of Etemad Melli on Saturday. About 50 members of Ansar gathered across the newspaper, even though Karoubi had requested earlier from the police to ensure the safety and security of the neighborhood. He had also warned that if a meeting did take place across his newspaper, he would ask his followers to hold a gathering in front of the newspaper on Monday.
Unlike earlier incidents, the police this time took measures to disperse the Basijees as a result of which no clashes took place. Karoubi took asked his green wave supporters not to hold their meeting as a response. But on Monday evening, exactly when the meeting was planned to be called off, an event led to the gathering of the green wave supporters. This was nothing other than the order to close Etemad Melli issued by Saeed Mortezavi.
As a result, no newspaper kiosk had a copy of Etemad Melli on Monday morning. Exhausted by the repeated public calls about the absence of Etemad Melli, Kiosk operators put up a sign that read, “Etemad Melli has been shut. Please do not ask.”
The state-run national television network repeatedly and every hour broadcast a message quoting Saeed Mortezavi – Tehran’s prosecutor - that “Etemad Melli newspaper has not been shut and the reason for its non-publication are problems at the press and have nothing to do with us.”
This denial came despite the fact that Etemad Melli had been banned because of its publication of Mehdi Karoubi’s letter about the sexual abuses in Iranian prisons, something that Karoubi’s son had confirmed the same day. While the managers of Etemad Melli had interpreted the words of their editor Haghshenas to mean that the newspaper would only remain shut for just one day, the comments were enough to again agitate the supporters of the green wave and the youth who had spent the recent days in the streets and take them again to the headquarters of the newspaper in Haft Tir square and the streets around it.
At 5pm of the same day, the ministry of Islamic Guidance and the prosecutor’s office contacted the manager of Etemad Melli and announced that the newspaper would remain shut until further notice which was enacted because of the order issued by branch 13 of the administrative court for government employees.
This news quickly spread to the demonstrators because security agents were caught off guard and had not yet organized themselves to confront the demonstrators.
As a result of this, the gathering in front of Etemad Melli was large. Security agents arrived around 3 pm. But their size was small. They did not even utilize the Basijees and so they were absent at Haft Tir square. Apparently they did not believe that such a large gathering would take place, while they were not aware of the ban of the newspaper either. Many people came to the site of the newspaper after six pm after hearing about the ban of the paper.
In a short time, a large gathering had convened around the streets of Etemad Melli offices near Haft Tir square, shutting down traffic in the vicinity. Because the rapid gathering had surprised security agents, they embarked on very violent measures to disperse the public which led to harsh beatings.
Eventually, agents used tear-gas and fired in the air to push the protesters towards Haft Tir square. And as they the public moved towards this larger area, security agents began to surround them and then beat them up, particularly women, and girls, although men too were included in the violence. By-sanding public at the same time shouted slogans calling on “the dictator to leave” while waving a green banner.
Plain-clothes agents directed the agents to violently treat the gatherers. They pounced in any direction where they heard protesting cries against “the dictator”, etc. But as they beat up the crowds, the responses by the protesters, others joined in with louder calls. So while Karoubi had called off Monday’s gathering the preceding day, a large multi-thousand crowd had still gathered which blocked automobile traffic for hours around Karim Khan bridge as more people joined the protestors.
A group of people were arrested in front of Etemad Melli offices and transferred to the police vans that had been stationed in the streets nearby. It appears that all the arrests that day were made by the police. The demonstrators stayed on the streets till about 9pm, while the staff of Etemad Melli had stopped their work because of the orders of the prosecutor and ministry of guidance. But no news of the ban was announced by the state-run national television. The station continued to broadcast the words of Mortezavi that Etemad Melli had encountered technical problems at the publishing house, while the public continued their call: “Shame on you dictator, leave the country.”
